Feb. 24, 2023—Nick Prendergast knew that he wanted to return to Washington, D.C., to work when he chose Vanderbilt as his law school. The Rhode Island native had earned his undergraduate degree at The George Washington University. “I love the D.C. area, but I wanted to experience living in another part of the country,” he said. Nick...
Feb. 24, 2023—Miles Malbrough came to law school knowing he wanted to practice in the public interest. A native of Sumner County, Tennessee, Miles had earned his undergraduate degree in social studies at Harvard University and considered pursuing a Ph.D. “I was interested in intergenerational social mobility, and I took a lot of sociology classes that examined...
Feb. 24, 2023—Chase Pritchett’s class in Antitrust Law with Professor Rebecca Allensworth was a defining moment for him. Chase transferred to Vanderbilt Law in 2020 as a 2L to take advantage of the law school’s deep Law and Business curriculum and its national job placement reach. “I had worked in corporate finance at a major bank, and...
Feb. 24, 2023—Luke Kessel discovered his interest in corporate finance law during his spring semester as a 1L, when he took Corporations as an elective. “I entered law school with no clear path except that I knew I wanted to practice law,” he said. “I realized I wanted to practice corporate law while I was taking Corporations...
Feb. 24, 2023—Emily Burgess became interested in a career in public interest law while working as an intern with the Jean Crow Advocacy Center as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. The center serves survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, and Burgess saw firsthand how attorneys helped clients understand their rights and what to expect in...
Feb. 24, 2023—Thomas Hildebrand realized he wanted to focus on international arbitration in summer 2020 while taking Professor Timothy Meyer’s class in the subject as a student in the Vanderbilt in Venice program. The course introduces students to public and private international laws governing trade and other economic activities, and students examine how the European Union works...
Feb. 24, 2022—Emily Burgess became interested in a career in public interest law while working as an intern with the Jean Crow Advocacy Center as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. The center serves survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, and Burgess saw firsthand how attorneys helped clients understand their rights and what to expect in...
Dec. 7, 2021—Moran is a professor emerita whose work focuses on federal income taxation, including individuals, partnerships, tax-exempt organizations and corporate. The Dec. 8 hearing can be viewed via webcast accessible at the Ways and Means Committee's webiste
Alumni Faculty News Features General News L&B News and Events
Aug. 19, 2020—After graduating from the University of Florida, Joshua Minchin married his high school debate partner and moved with her to Hong Kong, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. Joshua taught public speaking to business students at Hang Seng University, and both worked hard to learn to speak Cantonese. When the couple returned to the United States, they settled in Nashville, where...
Aug. 5, 2020—After earning her undergraduate degree, Natalie Komrovsky worked as a project manager for a translation company in Boston before moving to Russia to work for a nonprofit serving orphans and as an editor and translator for a Russian investment bank. When she decided to return to the U.S. to earn a J.D., she had to...
Jul. 16, 2020—After earning his undergraduate degree in sport management, Jeff Turner moved to Detroit to work as an assistant coach for the men’s lacrosse team at the University of Detroit Mercy. “Coaching was a great job and something I was really passionate about. It was a hard decision to leave the sport of lacrosse and change...
Jul. 16, 2020—Joline Desruisseaux applied to nine law schools and was offered full scholarships to three. Then she visited Vanderbilt. “I immediately felt that Vanderbilt Law was the right fit for me, and I knew my time at Vanderbilt would be worth the investment I was going to make,” she said. Joline minored in French, which she...
May. 29, 2020—The summer after her 1L year, Marisa Papenfuss made a surprising discovery while working in Washington, D.C., as a legal intern in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: She loved securities law. “Securities laws touch every facet of the markets,” she said. “That really fascinated me.” Her interest was confirmed the...
Apr. 10, 2020—Joey Blake became the first lawyer in his family when he received his J.D. in May 2020. Joey entered law school after working for two years at Oracle America; he included Vanderbilt among the 16 law schools to which he applied because of its strong Intellectual Property Program. “IP was definitely an area I was...
Feb. 23, 2020—Vanderbilt rose to the top of Emily Sachs’ list because it offered several opportunities to gain expertise and experience in health law. Sachs had designed her own major in bioethics at Muhlenberg College before law school. After applying to 22 law schools, she ultimately chose Vanderbilt because “the health law opportunities, such as the Health...
Feb. 5, 2020—Adrielle Conner’s journey to Vanderbilt started with her goal to be a community-oriented advocate. She knew law school would help her achieve this goal and identified three important factors in choosing a law school: A strong record of job placement nationwide, professors who mentored students, and a collegial atmosphere. “Vanderbilt was at the intersection of...
Feb. 5, 2020—Sarah Anderson chose Vanderbilt for its national reach and the support it provides students who wish to practice public interest law. “Vanderbilt sends graduates all over the country, and I didn’t know where I wanted to live,” she said. “And, as an environmental studies major, I was interested in practicing law in the public interest.”...
Feb. 4, 2020—Jin Yoshikawa chose Vanderbilt Law School both for the collegial culture and the intellectual climate. “Vanderbilt produces the kind of lawyer I wanted to be—sharp but not pretentious, articulate but plain-spoken, persuasive but polite,” he said. “I also wanted a solid foundation in the law.” During his time at Vanderbilt, Yoshikawa has appreciated the rigorous...
Jul. 11, 2019—After earning his undergraduate degree in business and economics at Wheaton College (Illinois), Will Pugh returned to his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, to become the second full-time employee of a start-up company he had helped launch as a summer employee during college. The company, Atlas RFID Solutions Store, provided an online market for radio frequency...
Jun. 26, 2019—Vivek Biswas knew he was interested in patent law before applying for law school. After earning his degree in chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, Biswas spent a year working as a law clerk at a St. Louis firm before starting law school. “That gave me a taste for what the work would...
Feb. 26, 2019—Hunter Thornton had initially considered earning a J.D./M.B.A. before deciding on Vanderbilt’s J.D./Master’s of Science in Finance, which he could complete in three years. “My interest in finance was well-seeded before I applied to law school, and the J.D./M.S.F. program really intrigued me,” he said. Students who discover they have an interest in corporate transactional...
Nov. 9, 2018—After earning his undergraduate degree from Rhodes College, Matthew Washnock worked for two years at Benefit Recovery Group, a Memphis-based company that recovers medical liens for large, employer-funded healthcare plans administered by its Fortune 500 clients. The job involved working with lawyers and insurance professionals and introduced him to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act,...
Nov. 7, 2018—After earning his undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt, Josh Landis’s plan was to work for a couple of years and then earn a graduate business degree. But while working in New York City at AlphaSights, a London-based company that supports major corporations and institutional investors by providing customized research services, he began contemplating a career change....
Nov. 2, 2018—JD Fox was looking for a law school with rigorous academics, a strong sense of community and a solid record of placing students in federal judicial clerkships. He applied to seven law schools, but he recalls having an “aha moment” when he sat in on a class during his visit to Vanderbilt. “The professor made...
Oct. 30, 2018—Jenae Ward spent three years in Montgomery, Alabama, teaching middle school through Teach for America, during which she earned a teaching certificate from Athens State University and Auburn University of Montgomery. But, while Ward enjoyed teaching and coaching girls’ basketball, co-ed soccer and track, she had long set her sights on a career in law....